Currently, such as in shipboard use, bromine cartridges are used for water disinfection. The bromine cartridge system is expensive to operate, has low reliability and maintainability. It has been found to be impractical to disinfect water over a wide range of conditions, and produces a hazardous waste product.
Another system used for shipboard water disinfection is batch chlorination with calcium hypochlorite. The batch chlorination method presents numerous safety hazards since the calcium hypochlorite is corrosive, has a limited shelf life, and can cause injury to personnel or damage to equipment if handled incorrectly. It also presents the potential hazard of causing fires and explosions if it comes in contact with any organic, combustible materials.
It would, therefore, be desirable to have a system that includes an electrolytic cell which can generate hypochlorite solution. The cell can assist in providing improved effectiveness of disinfection at reduced cost.